2.

1 Hydrogen Atom in a Magnetic Field 25

levels are given by

(2.30)

where j = I f 1/2 is the total angular momentum quantum number.

We just mention that another relativistic correction, the Darwin term,
gives a further contribution for s-states. This completes the description
of the fine structure. All in all, the eigenstates are classified according
to n, J2,Jz,and L2 (formally, we could have added S2 to the list but
in our particular case, it is just a constant).
To quote an example, the n = 2, 1 = 1 level is split into the higher-
lying fourfold degenerate j = 3/2 level, and the lower-lying twofold
degenerate j = 1/2 level (their spectroscopic notations5 are 2P3/2 and
2P1/2,respectively). Interestingly, the 2Pl/2level remains degenerate
(to all orders of a) with the 2S1/2 level arising from n = 2, I = 0.
However, it turns out that this degeneracy is lifted by the Lamb shift,
a quantum electrodynamical effect which is about a factor 10 smaller N

than the 2P3/2-2P1,2 fine structure splitting.

This is still not the end of the fine details of the level structure. The
magnetic field created by the magnetic moment of the nucleus interacts
with both the spin and the orbital magnetic moment of the electron,
giving rise to the hyperfine structure. In the simplest case, the coupling
can be written as
?&f=AI’S (2.31)
where I is the spin of the nucleus. We do not discuss this, apart from
pointing it out that the characteristic scale of the hyperfine splittings is
m/M N - times that of the fine structure.

Zeeman Effect (11)

Considering the hydrogen atom in a magnetic field, we take the Zeeman
term from (2.19) but neglect the diamagnetic term. Assuming that the
field H is pointing in the z-direction, the Hamiltonian is

3-1 = 3-10 + %re] + p B ( J z + S”)H. (2.32)

‘The notation is 2s+1 . ..
L J , where L = S,P, D,F, G,H I .. . for I = 0,1,2,3,4,5,.